2019-08-25: News Headlines

Stephen Lendman (2019-08-26). US Sanctions: A Weapon of War by Other Means. globalresearch.ca The US under both extremist wings of its war party imposes illegal sanctions on nations targeted for regime change — part of its war on these countries by other means. | European and most other nations go along even when harming …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2019-08-25). Trump's Trade War with China: Imagine What Would Happen if China Decided to Impose Economic Sanctions on the USA? globalresearch.ca In formulating these veiled threats, the Trump administration should think twice. These measures would inevitably backlash on the U.S. economy. China is not dependent on US imports. Quite the opposite. America is an import led economy with a weak manufacturing base, heavily dependent on imports from the PRC.

Aaron Maté (2019-08-25). Max Blumenthal: US sanctions on Venezuela are 'sociopathic'. thegrayzone.com The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal discusses his heated exchange with a former Obama official and a member of Venezuela's far-right opposition…

Telesur (2019-08-25). France: 'G7 and Its Summit Are Illegitimate', Aurelie Trouve. globalresearch.ca Environmental activists, human rights defenders, gender activists and social leaders began on Wednesday a "counter-summit" to protest the Group of Seven (G7) meeting which will be held in Biarritz, in the Basque Country, in France, from August 24 to 26….

Florian Zollmann (2019-08-25). Double Standards in Iran Reporting. indybay.org Iran has not attacked any country militarily in the last 100 years. This is mostly unmentioned in the media. Demonizations occur in the Iran reporting. In comparison, reporting about human rights in Saudi Arabia is not on the agenda.

John Perry (2019-08-25). Counting deaths for dollars: the rise and fall of Nicaragua's 'human rights' organizations. thegrayzone.com In their hunger for US funding, Nicaraguan "human rights" NGO's inflated the death toll during last year's coup. Today, these…

Staff (2019-08-24). Corporate Interests Use Voter Purges To Disenfranchise Citizens. therealnews.com The SCOTUS decision in Shelby County v Holder ruled that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is unconstitutional. Greg Palast talks about how what followed has been the expansion of the very issue that the VRA was implemented to curb…

Staff (2019-08-24). Trump's Concentration Camps for Children. therealnews.com This week, the Trump Administration declared that immigrant children can be detained indefinitely, and in conditions that can be described as concentration camps. We talk to Sasha Abramsky of The Nation…

teleSUR (2019-08-24). G7: Police Fire Tear Gas, 17 Counter-Summit Activists Arrested. telesurenglish.net French riot police fired tear gas at anti-capitalism protesters in Bayonne, a town near Biarritz, the luxurious resort where the Group of Seven (G7) leaders are meeting for their three-day annual summit. | RELATED: | G7 Summit Starts Amid Discontent with Amazon Fires, Trade Wars | Police also used water cannons on demonstrators who were holding the planned marches in Bayonne, 8km from the G7 venue. | Earlier, thousands of environmental activists, human rights defenders, social…

Staff (2019-08-24). 68 Protesters Detained as Leaders Gather at G-7 Summit. truthdig.com BIARRITZ, France—The Latest on the Group of Seven summit (all times local): | 11: 05 p.m. | French authorities have detained 68 people taking part in a tense protest near the G-7 summit. | The regional administration says those detained are accused of throwing projectiles, concealing their faces or possessing objects that could be used as weapons. | Police fired tear gas, water cannon and dispersion grenades at a crowd of about 400 mostly peaceful anti-capitalism demonstrators Saturday in the town of Bayonne. The regional administration says n…

WSWS (2019-08-24). Australian state Labor government's lies about "protest violence" exposed. wsws.org Labor's fabricated "booby trap" claims illustrate how governments concoct fear campaigns to attack basic democratic rights.

ADMIN (2019-08-24). Nebraska Supreme Court upholds law that ignores landowners' property rights, Indigenous sovereignty in flawed decision on Keystone XL pipeline route. nationofchange.org Nebraska landowners and Tribal Nations said they would continue to fight the Trump administration's rubber-stamp approval of a federal permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, after the Nebraska Supreme Court ignored due process rights, property rights, and indigenous sovereignty in a flawed decision on the "Mainline Alternative" route through Nebraska. This new route has undergone no legitimate environmental, property rights or cultural reviews and was approved without any proper notice to landowners and Ponca members along the new route. | WHAT: Telepresser for Media on Nebraska Supreme Court KXL Decisi…

Jim Goodman (2019-08-23). Farmers Need a Bill of Rights. counterpunch.org On January 11, 1944 in his annual State of the Union Address, President Roosevelt noted that while the Constitution guaranteed a set of political rights, they were in some respects inadequate. To ensure equality, Roosevelt proposed an Economic Bill of Rights that would guarantee: -Full employment with an adequate income -Freedom from monopolies and unfair More

Prof. Vijay Prashad (2019-08-23). World Watching the Fate of Iranian Tanker. globalresearch.ca At 11: 30pm on Sunday, August 18, the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya-1 left the shores of Gibraltar at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea. This ship had been detained about six weeks previous by British Royal Marines and Gibraltar officials. The …

Fight Back (2019-08-23). Activists demand Minnesota divest from border militarization contractor. fightbacknews.org St. Paul, MN – On August 22, immigrant rights and Palestine solidarity activists presented over 1000 signatures of Minnesota residents petitioning the State Board of Investments (SBI) to divest state pension funds from the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems. Elbit sells cluster bombs and weaponized white phosphorus to the Israel Defense Forces, whose indiscriminate use on besieged Gaza has been widely condemned by international organizations. Elbit also manufactures surveillance equipment for the Israeli apartheid wall, and drones used in targeted assassinations of Palestinian political leaders. | Advertisi…

United Nations (2019-08-23). South Sudan: UN rights experts see little headway on peace deal amid spike in local-level violence. un.org A United Nations expert group looking at human rights in South Sudan said on Friday that it is "deeply concerned" that, although the overall armed conflict has waned, there has been little progress in adhering to the peace agreement that guided the country thus far.

Stephen Lendman (2019-08-23). Trump Regime Threatens Illegal Sanctions on Nations Legally Buying Iranian Oil. globalresearch.ca The US under both extremist right wings of its war party is a rogue state by any definition. | It operates extrajudicially at home and abroad. It's increasingly repressive and totalitarian, heading toward full-blown tyranny if the present trend continues unchecked….

Staff (2019-08-23). Sen. Merkley Condemns Trump's Decision to Indefinitely Jail Migrant Kids. truthout.org | | The Trump administration is moving to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a new rule today to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which put a 20-day limit on migrant family detentions. We speak with Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who made headlines last year when he was barred from entering an o…

Andre Vltchek (2019-08-23). Suddenly West is Failing to Overthrow "Regimes" dissidentvoice.org It used to be done regularly and it worked: The West identified a country as its enemy, unleashed its professional propaganda against it, then administered a series of sanctions, starving and murdering children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups. If the country did not collapse within months or just couple of years, the bombing would …

Prof. James K. Rowe (2019-08-23). Indigenous People's Rights and Canada's 'Vampire' Pension Plan. globalresearch.ca Wet'suwet'en people have never ceded their land through treaty; like many Indigenous people they continue to practice relations of responsibility with the places and beings that give them life, including protecting them from ecological devastation. In January 2019, the RCMP …

United Nations (2019-08-23). Friday's Daily Brief: Education in Africa, Sudan flash-floods, WHO on Ebola, spike in South Sudan violence, Rwanda, Uganda move to normalize relations. un.org A recap of Friday's stories: Education under fire in Central and Western Africa; Sudan flash-floods wreak havoc; Ebola outbreak spreads, albeit with fewer transmissions; UN rights experts on South Sudan; and UN chief welcomes understanding between Rwanda and Uganda…

Fight Back (2019-08-23). U of MN Teamsters demand year-round work. fightbacknews.org Minneapolis, MN — While the University of Minnesota top officials gathered for the opening of newly renovated Pioneer Hall, August 21, about 50 members of Teamsters Local 320 and other campus unions held an informational picket line to demand the year-round, full-time employment for workers in M Dining. The U of M has curtailed summer work opportunities for Teamsters and is trampling on seniority rights. | Mick Kelly, a member of the negotiating committee for U of M Teamsters told the crowd, "The university is plunging us into poverty, and this is something that we will never put up with. It is unacceptabl…

Global Research News (2019-08-23). Selected Articles: The Geopolitics of the Kashmir Crisis. globalresearch.ca Online independent analysis of US-led wars, rampant corruption, corporate greed, civil rights and fraudulent monetary transactions is invariably relegated to the bottom rung of search engine results. | As a result we presently do not cover our monthly running costs which …

Jake Johnson, staff writer (2019-08-23). Warnings of Grave Climate and Human Rights Impact as US Export-Import Bank Approves $5 Billion for Natural Gas Project in Mozambique. commondreams.org "If there is a project with serious alarm bells, it's this one." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Staff (2019-08-23). Sen. Merkley Condemns Trump's War Against Migrant Families as U.S. Moves to Indefinitely Jail Kids. democracynow.org The Trump administration is moving to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a new rule today to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which put a 20-day limit on migrant family detentions. We speak with Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who made headlines last year when he was barred from entering an old Walmart where the government was detaining about 1,500 immigrant children in Brownsville, Texas.

Robert Scheer (2019-08-23). The Latest Victim in the Crucifixion of Julian Assange. truthdig.com The case of Ola Bini, a Swedish data privacy activist and associate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has been shrouded in mystery since his arrest in Quito, Ecuador, on April 11. He was detained on the same day Assange was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in the United Kingdom, inevitably raising questions about whether Bini was being held because of his connection with Assange and whether the United States was involved in the case in some form. | Bini, who initially…

pip.hinman (2019-08-23). Statewide protest says 'Black Lives Matter'. greenleft.org.au Indigenous rights Zebedee ParkesIssue 1234 Australia #Black Lives Matter justice SydneyAugust 23, 2019Aboriginal rights activis…

Joyce Chediac (2019-08-23). Interview: Lebanese solidarity with Palestinian refugees. liberationnews.org "For the first time in Lebanon, and possibly in any Arab country, banners supporting the rights of Palestinian refugees were carried along with queer and trans flags."

Staff (2019-08-22). DNC Rejects Call for a Climate Debate. therealnews.com Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials reversed the previous ban on candidates participating in non-sanctioned climate forums, but Carmen Bouquin of the Sunrise Movement says that's not enough…

Mark Waller (2019-08-22). South Africa bans old racist flag as hate speech. peoplesworld.org PRETORIA, South Africa — A landmark Aug. 21 ruling by South Africa's Equality Court has criminalized gratuitous displays of the national flag of the apartheid era. The case was brought before the court by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, backed by the South African Human Rights Commission. The apartheid flag is often displayed by far-right white …

Norman Stockwell (2019-08-22). 'Anti-alien Hysteria:' Journalist Elizabeth Glendower Evans and the Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. progressive.org In a case perhaps more relevant now than ever, the trial of the two immigrants became a rallying point for 1920s progressives, labor activists, and human rights advocates around the globe.

ACLU (2019-08-22). A Louisiana Parish Jailed a U.S. Citizen for Being Latinx. We're Suing. aclu.org Officers in a Louisiana jail held a U.S. citizen for four days on an immigration hold simply because of his skin color and name. | Ramon Torres had been a U.S. citizen for nearly ten years when he was detained for four days on an immigration hold — despite having a U.S. passport, a Louisiana driver's license, and a Social Security card, and despite that fact that a court ordered his release. | Torres' ordeal began in August 2018, when he was pulled over and arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Torres, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2009, was carrying multiple forms of identification, inclu…

United Nations (2019-08-22). Kashmir communications shutdown a 'collective punishment' that must be reversed, say UN experts. un.org End the crackdown on freedom of expression, was the strong call to the Government by India from five United Nations independent rights expert on Thursday.

Staff (2019-08-22). Warren Apologizes to Native Americans; Sanders Backs Rescinding Medals for Wounded Knee Massacre. democracynow.org This week 10 Democratic candidates and one independent in the 2020 presidential race, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, addressed indigenous communities at the first-ever Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa. During the two-day event, candidates individually answered questions from a panel of tribal leaders and Native American youth and elders on issues including treaty rights, voter suppression, and murdered and missing indigenous women.

Eds. (2019-08-21). Washington intensifies its collective punishment of Venezuelans. mronline.org Despite previous sanctions leading to over 40,000 deaths in Venezuela over two years, the U.S. is escalating its economic offensive. | Source

Ramzy Baroud (2019-08-21). Jewish Settlers Rule the Roost in Israel, But at What Price? dissidentvoice.org Israeli Jewish settlers are on a rampage in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. While settler violence is part of everyday routine in Palestine, the violence of recent weeks is directly linked to the general elections in Israel, scheduled to be held on September 17. The previous elections, on April 9, failed to bring about political …

Brandon Shimoda (2019-08-21). We Have Been Here Before. thenation.com We Have Been Here Before…

ACLU (2019-08-21). An Arizona Law Requires Surveillance of People Who Are Presumed Innocent. aclu.org The government cannot take shortcuts around constitutional rights. | A pillar of our democracy is the presumption of innocence: before a person has been convicted of a crime, they are considered completely innocent under the law. Yet across the country, people who have not been convicted are punished—both explicitly and implicitly—based on the mistaken assumption that they are dangerous, purely on the basis of an accusation. We do not live in a society where you can be incarcerated or monitored simply because you have been accused of a crime. Doing so violates constitutional rights, fuels mass incarce…

Fred_F (2019-08-21). Birth certificate reform set to win in Victoria despite fauxminist fear campaign. greenleft.org.au LGBTI rights Karen FletcherIssue 1234 Australia Birth certificate reform Victoria Victorian Women's GuildA…

Staff (2019-08-21). Headlines for August 21, 2019. democracynow.org Amazon Wildfires Spark Fears of Environmental Disaster as Sà£o Paulo Goes Dark from Smoke, Trump Expected to End Flores Agreement, Slashing Protections for Child Migrants, CBP Will Not Vaccinate Jailed Migrants as Doctors Say At Least 3 Detained Children Died from Flu, Lawsuits Allege "Torture" in Migrant Jails and Child Abuse in Foster Care, Italy in Turmoil as Prime Minister Resigns, Migrants Disembark from Rescue Ship in Italy After Being Stranded at Sea for 3 Weeks, Trump Cancels Denmark Visit over Refusal to Discuss Selling Greenland, Trump Attacks Tlaib & Omar, Says Jews Are "Disloyal" If They Vote De…

susan_p (2019-08-21). Turkey: HDP calls for mobilisations against AKP attacks — 'We will not be silenced, we will not be stopped…'. greenleft.org.au Kurdish struggle Susan PriceIssue 1234 Turkey Turkish arrests Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)August 21, 2019Human rights organisations, solidarity groups and the European Unio…

Janine Jackson (2019-08-20). 'Monsanto Has Worked Very Hard to Discredit Me and My Work' – CounterSpin interview with Carey Gillam on Monsanto's attack on journalism. fair.org Janine Jackson interviewed US Right to Know's Carey Gillam for the August 16, 2019, episode of CounterSpin, about being targeted by Monsanto. This is a lightly edited transcript. | Media…

unitedEditor (2019-08-20). Hong Kong: Flashpoint of Class Struggle in China. uwidata.com What began as isolated protests against a standard criminal-extradition law has somehow erupted into a violent fury throughout Hong Kong. The Chinese city's American-and-British-flag-waving protesters are, on the one hand, calling for "freedom, human rights, and democracy" while, on the other, assaulting police and even random bystanders alike. Western media have already been on the …

Rick Sterling (2019-08-20). NPR Mocks Cancer Survivor in Drumbeat of Syria Propaganda. dissidentvoice.org Asma al-Assad, First Lady of Syria (from released Syrian Presidency Facebook page) It may be a new low in propaganda. National Public Radio (NPR) used the news that Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad had overcome breast cancer to mock her and continue the information war against Syria. They interviewed a Human Rights Watch staffer named …

Janine Jackson (2019-08-19). On Gun Violence, 'We Need the Federal Government to Take Bold Steps' – CounterSpin interview with Ernest Coverson on guns & human rights. fair.org Janine Jackson interviewed Amnesty International USA's Ernest Coverson about guns and human rights for the August 16, 2019, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. | Media…

Fight Back (2019-08-19). Anti-War Committee denounces Israel's ban of Omar and Tlaib. fightbacknews.org Fight Back News Service is circulating the following August 15 statement from the Twin Cities based Anti-War Committee. | The Minnesota Anti-War Committee condemns the Israeli government's August 15 decision not to allow US Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering occupied Palestine, to which the Israeli state controls all access. Reps. Omar and Tlaib join the thousands of peace activists, human rights officials and people of conscience around the world who are denied entry over their support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel and its Zionist policies of occu…

ACLU (2019-08-19). Trump is Taking More Money for Raids and Detention. Congress Should Stop Him. aclu.org Without congressional checks, ICE and CBP will continue to overspend and overstep. | The budget for Trump's turbo-charged immigration enforcement and border militarization is now larger than ever. And just last week, we learned that ICE plans to redirect even more money to further expand immigration detention and enforcement. The plan is currently being reviewed by congressional appropriato…

splcenter (2019-08-19). SPLC, allies sue ICE for ignoring medical, mental health and disability needs of detained immigrants. splcenter.org Faour Abdallah Fraihat, who ran a successful construction business for years in California, is currently in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

United Nations (2019-08-19). Appointment of alleged war criminal to head of Sri Lanka army 'deeply troubling', says UN human rights chief. un.org The appointment of Sri Lankan Lieutenant-General Shavendra Silva as Commander of the country's army is deeply troubling, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in a statement released on Monday, adding that the military leader had been given the role despite "serious allegations of gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law against him and his troops during the war".

United Nations (2019-08-19). Support Mali reconciliation efforts 'in whatever way possible', urges UN expert. un.org Reconciliation initiatives in central Mali, to bring together local leaders and end ongoing violence, have been welcomed by the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Mali, Alioune Tine, who said on Monday that they should be supported "in whatever way possible."